Julia Robinson and Cassie Burnes have been friends since nursery school. They have shared everything, including their desire to escape the stifling limitations of their birthplace, the quiet town of Royston, Massachusetts.

But as the two girls enter adolescence, their paths diverge: while Julia comes from a stable, happy, middle-class family, Cassie never knew her father, who died when she was an infant, and has an increasingly tempestuous relationship with her single mother, Bev. When Bev becomes involved with the mysterious Anders Shute, Cassie feels cruelly abandoned.

Disturbed, angry and desperate for answers, she sets out on a journey that will put her own life in danger, and shatter her oldest friendship.

At its core, The Burning Girl is a story about childhood friendship and community. But, additionally, it’s also an exploration into the complexities of childhood friendship and how often they alternate between fragile and strong. Like with any friendship, each person sees it only through their own eyes, so things can go amiss and misunderstandings can unfold and they can be a catalyst for a fractured friendship.

“You get to middle school, and you think about these things. The world opens up; history stretches behind you, and the future stretches before you, and you’re suddenly aware of the wild, unknowable interior lives of everyone around you, the realisation that each and every person lives in an unspoken world as full and strange as your own, and that you can’t ever hope entirely to know anything, not even yourself.”

The Burning Girl is written in first person from the point of view of Julia, so we never really know as much about Cassie as we’d like to. We only know what Julia knows, either from her first hand experience or from stories that other people have told Julia. The two girls grow apart as the years pass, but they do remain friends. They share jokes with each other and they reminisce on summers they spent together, and adventures that they had. It’s hard for Julia to see Cassie deteriorate, because she wants to help her. But at the same time, Cassie holds back from her and so it becomes hard for Julia to know what to do.

“Cassie’s father was as much a myth as the drowned boy. Not in the sense that he might not be real, but in the sense that she’d never actually known him. Or rather, that she couldn’t remember him.”

I found Julia to be a passive character. She was always commenting on everyone else in the narrative, and we never really got a sense of who she was. I finished the novel feeling like Julia wasn’t even a character, and instead, she was just this omniscient narrator presenting us with a story about other people.

Julia befriends a classmate called Peter. She always liked Peter, but he did date Cassie for a time and so Cassie at times feels like she can trust him and tell him things she hasn’t told anyone else. Julia likes to keep tabs on Cassie and so through Peter, Julia is able to fill in any gaps she has. Over time, Julia and Peter bond over their mutual concern for Cassie and their determination to help her.

“After that, we’d speak often on the phone, maybe even a few times a week, a strange friendship, rarely face-to-face in the beginning. There wasn’t, in our middle school lives, another way for us to spend time together.”

Cassie’s life really begins to deteriorate after her mother Bev starts dating a new man. Cassie never feels comfortable around him and after he moves into their family home, he starts restricting Cassie’s access to social media and technology and he starts to police what she wears and who she talks to. It’s suffocating for Cassie.

“Here’s what I believe,” she said. “I believe he was looking for us — for me. I believe he found out about the youth group because of our photo album online. And then he figured out about the Bible study, and Mom, and then he came there. He doesn’t even live in Royston, for fuck’s sake. He lives in Haverhill, and he works in Haverhill.”

The only thing Cassie can cling to in order to feel in control of her life is the memory of her father. But, she soon realises that her perception of things has been incorrect.

Friendships that we form when we’re young can have a monumental affect on our childhood and adolescence. Female friendships in particular can influence — positively or negatively — who you become as you get older. Those friendships can be supportive, but they can also be tumultuous, exhausting, and challenging. I think female readers will be able to relate to Julia and Cassie a lot more than male readers.

“Sometimes I felt that growing up and being a girl was about learning to be afraid. Not paranoid, exactly, but always alert and aware, like checking out the exits in the movie theatre or the fire escape in the hotel.”

The Burning Girl explores the complexities of female friendship — they may falter or they may fracture, but there are all these different layers to childhood friendships that don’t quite match a friendship formed later in a person’s life. I recommend this book to literary fiction lovers. It’s a character-driven story, not necessarily plot-driven. Read this for the masterful writing and the careful, slow-build illustration of Julia and Cassie.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Burning Girl
Claire Messud
September 2017
Hachette Book Publishers

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On a wet Monday in January, Jess Mount checks Facebook and discovers her timeline appears to have skipped forward 18 months, to a day when shocked family and friends are posting heartbreaking tributes to her following her death in an accident. Jess is left scared and confused: is she the target of a cruel online prank or is this a terrifying glimpse of her true fate?

Amongst the posts are photos of a gorgeous son she has not yet conceived. But when new posts suggest her death was deliberate, Jess realises that if she changes the future to save her own life, the baby boy she has fallen in love with may never exist.

After I’ve Gone is a gripping new thriller about a young girl who knows she will be dead in 18 months’ time, but doesn’t know how it happens or even how to stop it.

Jess Mount, the protagonist of the story, is 22 years old and is enjoying life. She isn’t stressed about love or her career, and she’s carefree. She works at the local movie theatres with her best friend and she lives with her dad. The two are very close. She lives a pretty quiet life, and she doesn’t anticipate that her life will change anytime soon.

When she meets Lee, she falls in love instantly. He’s older than her, but he’s charming, sweet, caring and he wins over everyone with his personality. Jess meets his mother Angela and she really warms to Jess. But as her Facebook timeline fills up with posts from the future, Jess learns that Leo has been charged with her murder. And the case is going to trial. She can’t believe that the man she’s falling in love with could be responsible for her death.

“My heart is hammering against my chest, as if trying to alert me of the impending danger. My eyes, when I see them reflected in the wardrobe mirrors, are wild and staring. My whole body is trembling. I do not want to believe this. I do not want my happiness spoilt. Whoever is doing this, and however they are doing it, they are doing it on purpose to hurt me. I know that.”

When Jess tries to show her best friend Sadie the Facebook posts, Sadie can’t see anything. She just sees Jess’ normal timeline. So Jess can’t do anything but continue to watch as loved ones post tributes to her.

“The photo I am looking at is of me and Lee on our wedding day. I know Photoshop is good, but it is not that good. You can’t play around with something that isn’t there. This isn’t a case of airbrushing something out, this is the creation of something that has not happened.”

I think the strengths of this book lie with the characters, and the writing. Linda Green has done a wonderful job of bringing Jess to life. She’s young and at times immature, and quite naive. She is determined to alter her fate, but doesn’t want to risk losing her son. Sadie is also a fantastic character. She’s determined, fierce, bold and whenever she and Jess are in a scene together they’ve got great dynamic. She’s incredibly loyal to Jess and is very compassionate. She’s protective of her, and in her Facebook posts to Jess’ timeline in the future, she’s determined to uncover the truth about Jess’ death.

I think the pacing was one of the weaknesses in the book. The first half of the book was really slow. Jess knew that she was going to die in 18 months’ time and because of photos and stories being posted on her timeline, she knew about certain events before they happened. And yet, when the events came to play before her, she let them happen? I thought she’d be a bit more defiant and would try to alter the timeline a lot more. Instead, I think she tried maybe twice and then gave up rather easily.

The ending is quite obvious and I picked it in the first fifty pages of the book. The twist wasn’t really a twist. Additionally, scattered throughout the book are chapters that are written in past tense. They document a time in Jess’ life after her mother died and she felt a little lost with life. Her best friend and her dad helped her, and she was able to recover from her breakdown. Truthfully, I don’t think these chapters were needed. Jess’ dad and best friend both mention this time in her life at various points throughout the book, and so I actually found myself skimming those chapters.

This book may be a thriller and it may be a case of ‘whodunnit’ but it is also an exploration into domestic violence. Linda has done an exceptional job of really capturing what it’s like for a domestic violence victim, getting drawn into the web of their abuser and being unable to leave without the fear of being harmed (of their loved ones being harmed).

For anyone who is about to read this book, I really recommend you read the author’s note at the end. It’s incredibly moving. The motivation behind the book and the research that went into the book were particularly fascinating.

“Thirty per cent of domestic violence starts or gets worse when a woman is pregnant. When, twenty years ago, I relayed the findings of a survey on this from a local women’s refuge, my news editor, said, ‘Yeah that’s because the men have got more to aim for’. When I objected to this ‘joke’ I was told that feminists lack a sense of humour.”

I recommend this book to readers who love thriller novels. I picked the ending of this pretty early on, but I know some readers who didn’t. This book has many layers, and the author has evidently done her research. It’s incredibly well-written.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

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Beth is an absolute wreck. She is certain that she has some kind of disease — a fatal one, most likely. She is also very single and quite keen on her (boss) colleague, Dr Brendan Roberts. He seems to fancy her, too — well, until The Morning After.

Beth knows it’s time to sort out her messy life, but she has no idea where to start.

Enter Shane — a slightly dishevelled forklift driver. He may not be suave or wealthy, but he does laugh at Beth’s jokes and remember how she likes her coffee. Plus, the more they hang out, the healthier she feels.

But when Shane suddenly cuts off all communication, Beth starts to think there’s no such thing as The One, and she decides to stop being slapdash and move on. Only life is never that simple, and Beth must take a chance if she hopes to find the cure to her ills.

Lovesick is a hilarious romantic comedy about taking risks and learning to let go of whatever is worrying you or holding you back.

Beth is a wonderful protagonist — she’s 26 and she’s witty, smart, sharp and she knows what’s good for her. She has a crush on her boss, but she doesn’t let it overcome her. She doesn’t get her hopes up. And after their Morning After, she doesn’t get in over her head. She is level-headed and mature. I loved reading about her in the story. At first, she’s unsure of herself and she’s quite shy. She doesn’t go for what she wants and she (in some ways) lets people walk all over her, like her sister Simone.

“I’m ready! Most days are like this. Every day, really. It would be nice to sit neatly at the dining table and eat organic bircher muesli and read the newspaper before work. I would like to carefully consider my outfit, wear fitted dresses and brooches and have my hair done properly. But calmly calmly just isn’t my style. Slapdash! is all I can manage.”

Over the course of the novel, she learns to adjust her expectations and believe in what she actually wants. Her sister is pushing her to pursue a relationship with her boss Brendan, but Beth knows something isn’t quite right. She knows that Shane is a better fit for her, despite the fact that they’re so different and his roommate is warning Beth against him. And then Shane disappears for a couple of weeks, and Beth isn’t sure what this means.

“I wouldn’t mind kissing Brendan. Or, really, just kissing someone. Brendan’s super attractive and everything, but does he take longer than me getting ready every morning? Are his teeth too white?”

Beth — and all of the other characters — are flawed in many ways. But that’s what makes them relatable, and fun to read about. This is a light romance novel for anyone looking for something not too heavy. Jean won the inaugural XO Romance Prize, so it’s easy to understand why this novel is so fun to read.

In saying that, I think the ending wrapped up a little too abruptly. We find out the reason why Shane has been avoiding Beth, and then the book finishes. It felt a little sudden to me. I would’ve liked for the resolution between Beth and Shane to be a little more in-depth rather than just one conversation. I definitely think Jean had room to expand this.

“Sometimes when I’m halfway through saying something that I think is a good joke I realise that it’s probably just weird, but then it’s too late people I’m with look at me like, What? So, I love that Shane gets when I’m not being serious (most of the time) and goes along with my bizarre conversations.”

The best part about this book is the humour. Jean had me laughing out aloud on the train all throughout the book, with hilarious one-liners and really witty character observations. I raced through this book, devouring each page and desperate to read how the story was going to progress. This is a novel I’d recommend to all the romance readers out there — it’s fun and light but it’ll also pull on your heart strings.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

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This is not a great love story.
This is a story about great love.
On a morning that seems just like any other, Robbie wakes in his bed, his wife Emily asleep beside him, as always. He rises and dresses, makes his coffee, feeds his dogs, just as he usually does. But then he leaves Emily a letter and does something that will break her heart. As the years go back all the way to 1962, Robbie’s actions become clearer as we discover the story of a couple with a terrible secret – one they will do absolutely anything to protect.

Together is a superb, compelling, beautiful love story that spans over four decades. It is about love that transcends circumstance. Robbie and Emily are in their 80s and are blissfully happy. Robbie is losing his memory – bit by bit – and decides to remove himself from Emily’s life as a favour to her. As the reader, we have no idea why he would do this. And then the story starts shifting backwards.

“She was still asleep. She hadn’t moved. He gazed down at her. Her hair had threads of silver and sunshine, her skin was soft in sleep. She was the girl he’d met in 1962; the girl he felt like he’d waited his whole life up until then to meet. He thought about waking her up to see her eyes again.”

As we read about the decades that these two characters have been with each other, we come to understand the complexities of their relationship. We come to understand their doubts and their struggles and all that they’re worried about. Emily’s family have ostracised her. She no longer speaks to her sister or her parents, and they have no wish to speak to her. We don’t know why but we know it has something to do with Robbie.

“The glass of water in his hands, the bites and powerless water. He wound back his arm and threw it as hard as he could. It disappeared into the darkness and he heard it smash on the fence. Heard the water and broken glass and ice falling to the ground.
‘I’m not going to lose another child,’ he said. ‘I’m not going to lose him.’

Together is structured so that the narrative unfolds in reverse, causing the reader to believe in the couple’s love before they know the real reason why Emily and Robbie can’t be together. If you read the origin of their love story first, you’d really believe they should be apart. But because Julie Cohen makes us fall in love with these characters before we find out the reason, we suddenly get to the end of the book and question whether the reason they were supposed to be apart was actually that bad? In Together, you can see how amazing Emily and Robbie are for each other, and how amazing their lives were together.

“Ten years had done nothing to her. She was the girl he had seen on the station concourse, the girl he had kissed in the rain, the girl who had said goodbye to him in her father’s car. Robbie’s heart paused and then it thumped two beats at once and happiness rushed through him, a physical presence more than an emotion, grabbing hold of him and stopping his movements and his breathing, the bourbon pooled in his mouth waiting to be swallowed.”

This book is filled with bittersweet emotion, as well as raw, gut-wrenching truths and three-dimensional characters who you want to devour. Emily and Robbie were once forced apart by circumstances that they couldn’t control, but they chose to reunite with each other and they chose to live together and be happy for decades to come. Despite the taboo around their relationship, they chose to sacrifice so much in order to be together.

This is a beautiful novel — so well written and so lyrical and poetic in its construction. You love the characters just as much as they love each other, and you venture through the book desperate to read every page.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

1989. When Louise first notices the new girl who has mysteriously transferred late into their senior year, Maria seems to be everything Louise’s other friends aren’t. Authentic. Funny. Brash. Within just a few days, Maria and Louise are on their way to becoming fast friends.

2016. Louise receives a heart-stopping email: Maria Weston wants to be friends on Facebook. Long-buried memories quickly rise to the surface: Those first days of their budding friendship; cruel decisions made and dark secrets kept; the night that would change all their lives forever.

Louise has always known that if the truth ever came out, she could stand to lose everything. Her job. Her son. Her freedom. Maria’s sudden reappearance threatens it all, and forces Louise to reconnect with everyone with whom she’d severed ties in order to escape the past. But as she tries to piece together exactly what happened that night, Louise discovers there’s more to the story than she ever knew. To keep her secret, Louise must first uncover the whole truth, before what’s known to Maria-or whoever is pretending to be her-is known to all.

Friend Request is Laura Marshall’s debut psychological thriller — it’s told in dual timelines and switches back and forth between 1989 and 2016.

In the present, Louise receives a friend request on Facebook from Maria Weston, a high school classmate who died twenty-five years ago (although her body was never found). Louise is shook, but she’s also feeling deeply guilty because of things that transpired in high school in 1989. The reader learns early on that Louise didn’t treat Maria well in school, and more importantly, Louise feels responsible for Maria’s death.

“I have lived the last twenty-seven years in the shadow of what we did, of what I did. Of course my life has carried on — I have studied and worked, shopped and cooked; I’ve been a friend, a daughter, a wife, a mother. Yet all the time, in the back of my mind, this one unforgivable act has loomed — squashed, squeezed, parcelled, but always there.”

Louise is a single mother to four-year-old Henry; she was married to her high school classmate Sam, but the two split up when Henry was two and now Sam is remarried with a new child. Things seem tense between the two, and Louise is trying to keep the relationship as pleasant as possible, but deep down she is still hurt that Sam cheated on her and then left her for the woman he was having an affair with.

This book feels very current because of how dominant social media is to the storyline. I mean, don’t get me wrong, the premise is quite absurd, but it’s still a good read. It’s still thrilling and an absolute page-turner.

I really thought I had a solid theory about the ending of the book, but I was completely wrong. I was actually genuinely surprised by the twist at the end, and in some reviews people say they saw it coming, but I definitely didn’t.

“I tend to divide the people I meet, or certainly those of my own age, into two broad categories: those who are like me, and those who aren’t. I was fascinated if a little disgusted by this new information about someone who (on my admittedly limited acquaintance with her) had seemed firmly in my category.”

There is one thing about this novel that I didn’t particularly enjoy. Every so often, there’s a chapter in the book written in italics. It’s unclear whose point of view these chapters are written from, but there’s definitely an ominous danger to them. You feel like these chapters are key to the twist at the end of the book, but you can’t quite grasp the answer. After I’d finished reading the novel, I went back and re-read these particular chapters and thought that they probably weren’t needed. I could certainly see some hints dropped in, but I felt like those italic chapters detracted from the plot and stalled the story too much.

“Some days she feels like a prisoner in her own home. There’s no reason she can’t go out, of course. Nobody could tell from simply looking at her. But on days like today, it feels as though someone has peeled back a layer of skin, leaving her face red raw, offering no protection from the elements.”

Friend Request illustrates to readers that we are actually really vulnerable online. We post all about our lives, and we allow people to see things about us that we may not choose to tell them in an everyday face to face setting. This is a chilling, engaging read but it’s also a social commentary on how much we expose ourselves online to strangers.

I’d recommend this to crime fiction fans and also anyone who has an online presence. Readers who don’t have social media may not understand some of the references, but the underlying plot of this book is the disappearance and (presumed) death of Maria Weston and I think most readers will enjoy playing the guessing game.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.